Editor handed five-year jail term in Azerbaijan

New
York, September 30, 2013--An appellate court in Azerbaijan should reverse the
conviction and five-year prison sentence handed on Friday to Hilal Mamedov,
chief editor of the independent newspaper Talyshi Sado.

A
court in Baku, the capital, convicted Mamedov of treason, incitement to hatred,
and selling illegal drugs, and sentenced him to five years in prison after a
closed-door trial, according to news reports. Mamedov was arrested in June 2012
and initially charged with drug possession. One month later, he was also charged with treason
and incitement to ethnic and religious hatred, according to news reports. The journalist
is appealing the conviction.

"Given the wide range of charges thrown at Hilal Mamedov, it's as if Azerbaijaniauthorities are desperate to keep him from practicing journalism," CPJ Europe and
Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. "His conviction should be
overturned on appeal and Mamedov set free immediately."

In
a statement in 2012, Azerbaijan's Interior Ministry said Mamedov had undermined
the country's security through his articles for Talyshi Sado, interviews he had given to Iranian broadcaster
Sahar-2, and unnamed books he had allegedly translated and distributed. The
statement also accused the journalist of spying for Iran.

Local and international press freedom and human
rights groups, including the independent Baku-based Institute for Reporters'
Freedom and Safety (IRFS) and the Observatory for the Protection of Human
Rights Defenders, have unsuccessfully called for an investigation into
allegations by the journalist and his lawyer, who reported having seen bruises
on his client's body, that he was tortured and that his defense motions were
summarily denied in court.

In
2008, Novruzali
Mamedov,
editor of Talyshi Sado and no relation to Hilal, was also convicted of
treason and sentenced to 10 years in jail after a closed-door trial. A year into
serving his sentence, Mamedov died in
prison.
News reports said he had been denied adequate medical treatment for several
illnesses. After his death, human rights and press freedom groups, including
CPJ, called for an independent investigation into his death, but none was
conducted.

Hilal
Mamedov, then deputy editor of the
paper, was on the forefront in criticizing authorities for not
conducting an investigation. Local human rights defenders said Hilal Mamedov's
efforts provoked the government, the Russian news website Gazeta reported.

Azerbaijan,
which holds at least nine journalists behind bars in retaliation for their
work, is due to assume the rotating chairmanship of the Council of Europe in
2014.